Saturday 12th March 2011
I finally dragged myself off the computer at 3am after spending the entire time Tweeting, Facebooking, emailing and answering the Skype phone. Oh, and writing the previous post too.
Fully clothed, I crawled under the duvet on the sofa and put the BBC News on to see what was happening. My traumatised dog and laid-back cat both fought for prime position on me; not comfortable. I dozed fitfully but eventually fell into a very deep sleep that was rudely interrupted when Tim and Rhiannon arrived home at 7am.
The roads had finally cleared enough for them to travel home. In fact, the roads were empty. I think everyone stayed at home to clear up the mess that surely must have occurred in homes with belongings.
We spent the day doing very little really. Countless aftershocks occurred - and are still going on. They are starting to make me feel queasy as most of them are like moments of dizziness. Others, however are sudden and startling jolts.
A trip to Shibuya was very strange. Normally on a Saturday you have to fight your way through the crowds but today it was almost empty. Also, many shops were closed. This is most unusual - shops stay open all the time, even during the many public holidays.
Public transport is still not working to full capacity.
Tales from friends abound: quite a few older children were stranded at school - those able to stay with friends were very lucky. For some however, the parents' journey took 11 hours, so bad were the roads.
Others tell of supermarkets being stripped bare of food. I'm not entirely clear on why this is happening. It may have something to do with the ever increasing panic due to the nuclear plant at Fukushima exploding.
Another called me to ask if we were thinking of evacuating from Japan entirely! No - we're leaving on 11th April anyway.
I am so tired that I'm not functioning fully. I'm sure there is more I should add to this post but I can't think of anything right now. After the massive adrenaline surge of yesterday, with injections of extra supplies after every large aftershock, my body and brain has gone into a rather blank mode.
So I'll sign this post off now. I'm sure there will be more drama to come tomorrow.
